Goose barnacles look as strange as their name, with a long, noodle-like stalk emerging from smooth white plates. The crustacean, also known as percebes, is also extremely expensive – in Europe, where it’s enjoyed as a delicacy, a kilo might cost hundreds of dollars.
And this week, a bunch washed up at Horseshoe Bay, south of Adelaide.
“[The pylon] was coated with what looked like udon noodles with cockles on the end,” Martin Smee, from Port Elliot’s surf life saving club, told ABC Radio Adelaide.
“I had a closer look and there were barnacles, thousands of barnacles.”
A few days later, more were spotted on Bondi beach, Sydney.
But while goose barnacles are undeniably strange in appearance, they’re a normal part of the natural marine environment, according to a Waverley council spokesperson. “They are often found washed onto shore depending on winds and currents,” they said.
A crustaceans expert at the South Australian Museum, Dr Rachael King, said it is not surprising to see the goose barnacles drift ashore.
Every now and then, she said, they attach themselves to objects floating in the water, like submerged lines and moorings and buoys.
“These live on things that drift in the ocean, and things drift in onto shore all the time,” King said. “It’s really a cool experience to see things that you don’t usually see.
“They’re out there in the open ocean, and you just don’t get to see them from where we are on shore so much. So it’s really nice to be able to see them coming in like these.
“Unfortunately, these animals won’t survive because, you know, they’re supposed to be out there, floating on debris, living their best lives.”
King said the barnacles float around and create habitat for other animals in the open ocean, but can also be a vector for invasive species.
“They attach themselves to something, and they stay there their whole life,” she said. “They’re more related to crabs and shrimp than they are to cockles or pippies.”
King suspects the reason the ones in South Australia were more translucent was because they were fresher, whereas the ones on Bondi appear as if they had been on shore for longer.
“When they’ve been exposed [to the sun], they go darker,” she said.
The edible flesh looks like a dragon claw and, when boiled and cooked, has been described as tasting like a cross between lobster and clam.
Gooseneck barnacles cling to rocks where there is a strong crashing surf. “Growing in cold water along the tidal cracked rocks, harvesting percebes is a difficult and dangerous feat,” writes the Brown Trading Company, a supplier of seafood in the United States.
During low tide, when the rocks have been washed by waves, some barnacles can be stripped from the rocks by hand. Others, however, “require a diver armed with a pry bar,” the Brown Trading Company explains.
They recommend steaming or blanching the barnacles to reduce the taste of salt, then removing the rough skin from the shell. The meat inside can be pulled out and eaten.
While often added to soups, chowders, pastas, the meat is also served on its own with a variety of dressings – garlic and butter, chilli and lemon or even a sherry cream sauce and wild greens.
